Sudan has imposed nine internet restrictions since 2021 (www.benjamindada.com)

Surfshark’s Internet Shutdown Tracker reveals that there were a total of 16 internet disruptions in these five African countries during or after the adoption of the resolution.

“The UN resolution on human rights on the internet aims to make countries openly condemn these shutdowns and other ways of restricting online speech,” says Gabriele RacaityteKrasauske, Surfshark spokeswoman. “However, it’s concerning that even though five African countries publicly supported the resolution, they still imposed internet restrictions”.

Outside Africa, nine other countries also broke their word regarding internet restriction, they include India, Cuba, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Russia, Brazil, Armenia, Indonesia, and Ukraine.

“In todays world, internet shutdowns have become a major concern.

However, they had the opportunity to sponsor the resolution but chose not to.

On the other hand, four countries that were part of the council decided to abstain from voting.

Despite supporting the July 2021 UN Human Rights Council resolution on promoting human rights on the internet and condemning internet shutdowns, Surfsharks Internet Shutdown Tracker shows that these countries either had ongoing internet restrictions or disrupted internet access since then.

Now, let’s look at the bigger picture. 78 countries (or 40) supported the resolution by either voting in favour of it or sponsoring it.

Interestingly, over half of the countries (111) took a passive position.